Saturday, July 22, 2017

BlogTedPod

A
rousing closing to the Jazz Course week, starting with shared reflection and
ending with Little Johnny Brown, each
in turn getting one more chance to “show us their motion” accompanied by
spirited singing and handclapping. In the reflection circle, one person shared
that she enjoyed my philosophical detours after the activities that actually
hit some of the most important points a teacher might consider. And then
followed with:” Have you ever considered doing Podcasts?”

Almost
any time I’m in the car with my daughter Talia, she has a Podcast to share with
me and they’re invariably thought-provoking and interesting. Now that my wife has gone over to the other side and bought an i-Phone, she's starting to
listen to them as well. And why not? In our contemporary world, the old oral
traditions of storytelling are joined with the literate traditions of
book-writing and keep us company while jogging, painting, cooking, driving,
what have you. And feed our hunger for knowledge, for active thought, for
stories, for enlarging our point of view. Not with the commitment of the book
or feature film, but in 5 to 20 minute soundbytes that have substance, but in
more bite-size chunks.

In
the literate world, there is the blog. For over 6 years, I’ve enjoyed writing
one and apparently enough people have enjoyed reading them—a modest amount, to
be sure— but enough to feel it merits being public. In the audio-visual world,
there are the TED talks and I got to give one 12-minute presentation and have
enjoyed watching others. In the aural world, there is the Podcast and now that
I am starting to listen to a few, I can’t help but think: “Why not?" If I could
capture the things that I speak about in the midst of a workshop that brings
the room to a sharp listening focus, I think they might be of interest to
people.

But
that means preparing them, recording them and figuring out where to put them
and how to advertise them. A lot of work. But intriguing. Is this the next step
for me? Where to begin? What themes would be of interest? How long should they
be?

With
6 more days before my next birthday, it’s a time to look at what’s ahead, how
much to continue of what I’m already doing, how and when to catch up with
long-overdue books that I want to write, how much to balance teaching kids with
adults to sharing pieces/ processes/ activities/ pedagogies through print,
video and audio. Could I keep up this blog, still write in my journal, write
the next book and an article or two, organize my videos and make new ones to
fill in the gaps, make a few podcasts, all the while still teaching children
and adults and practicing piano and occasionally performing jazz and etc. etc. etc. And the
answer is…I doubt it. So time to pick and choose, let some go for the moment,
follow others.

That’s
what’s on my mind as I sit in the Halifax Airport about to return home to teach
my next course. We’ll see what the world has in mind.

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About Me

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E.B. White).
Early on in my adult life, I was convinced that the world is a mess that needs fixing. But I also sensed that life is short, that miracles and beauty abound and that we would do well to pay attention to them. In a stroke of good fortune, I stumbled on a life that allowed both to happen at once. Teaching music at The San Francisco School with children between three and 14 years old guaranteed a fair share of miracles and beauty. The sense that happy children playing, imagining, thinking and creating might help a bit with that improving-the-world side of things made it easy to plan my day.
Alongside my 42 years at The San Francisco School is a parallel life of traveling and teaching the Orff approach to music education—some 44 countries to date banging on xylophones and slapping our bodies. This blog now in its seventh year sharing these experiences. Settle back in your armchair and enjoy!